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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 91 records · Page 5

Shuttle cryogenic supply system optimization study. Volume 5A-1: Users manual for math models

The Integrated Math Model for Cryogenic Systems is a flexible, broadly applicable systems parametric analysis tool. The program will effectively accommodate systems of considerable complexity involving large numbers of performance dependent variables such as are found in the individual and integrated cryogen systems. Basically, the program logic structure pursues an orderly progression path through any given system in much the same fashion as is employed for manual systems analysis. The system configuration schematic is converted to an alpha-numeric formatted configuration data table input starting with the cryogen consumer and identifying all components, such as lines, fittings, and valves, each in its proper order and ending with the cryogen supply source assembly. Then, for each of the constituent component assemblies, such as gas generators, turbo machinery, heat exchangers, and accumulators, the performance requirements are assembled in input data tabulations. Systems operating constraints and duty cycle definitions are further added as input data coded to the configuration operating sequence.

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Estimation of squeeze-film damping and inertial coefficients from experimental free-decay data

The results are given for an experimental program concerned with a parametric identification of the damping and inertial coefficients of a cylindrical squeeze-film bearing, through an analysis of transient response data. The results enable the operating range for which a linear model of the squeeze-film is appropriate to be determined. Comparisons are made between the estimated coefficients and theoretical predictions. Presentation is by courtesy of the Council of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, London.

Roberts, J. B.↗

Mechanical Prototyping and Manufacturing Internship

The internship was located at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) Innovation Design Center (IDC), which is a facility where the JSC workforce can meet and conduct hands-on innovative design, fabrication, evaluation, and testing of ideas and concepts relevant to NASA's mission. The tasks of the internship included mechanical prototyping design and manufacturing projects in service of research and development as well as assisting the users of the IDC in completing their manufacturing projects. The first project was to manufacture hatch mechanisms for a team in the Systems Engineering and Project Advancement Program (SETMAP) hexacopter competition. These mechanisms were intended to improve the performance of the servomotors and offer an access point that would also seal to prevent cross-contamination. I also assisted other teams as they were constructing and modifying their hexacopters. The success of this competition demonstrated a proof of concept for aerial reconnaissance and sample return to be potentially used in future NASA missions. I also worked with Dr. Kumar Krishen to prototype an improved thermos and a novel, portable solar array. Computer-aided design (CAD) software was used to model the parts for both of these projects. Then, 3D printing as well as conventional techniques were used to produce the parts. These prototypes were then subjected to trials to determine the success of the designs. The solar array is intended to work in a cluster that is easy to set up and take down and doesn't require powered servomechanisms. It could be used terrestrially in areas not serviced by power grids. Both projects improve planetary exploration capabilities to future astronauts. Other projects included manufacturing custom rail brackets for EG-2, assisting engineers working on underwater instrument and tool cases for the NEEMO project, and helping to create mock-up parts for Space Center Houston. The use of the IDC enabled efficient completion of these projects at significantly reduced cost. I acquired and improved manufacturing and prototyping skills during my tour including learning about a CAD (Computer-Aided Design) program called Creo (Creo Parametric; design software), gaining valuable conventional machining experience with lathes, CNC (Computer Numerical Control) milling machines and various other tools, and improving my engineering project communication and collaboration skills. The internship also allowed me to better understand operations at NASA. I plan to work in the aerospace industry or do academic research benefitting space science and exploration, and this internship experience will enable me to have insight into manufacturing processes for research and development.

Grenfell, Peter↗

A Conceptual Wing Flutter Analysis Tool for Systems Analysis and Parametric Design Study

An interactive computer program was developed for wing flutter analysis in the conceptual design stage. The objective was to estimate flutt er instability boundaries of a typical wing, when detailed structural and aerodynamic data are not available. Effects of change in key flu tter parameters can also be estimated in order to guide the conceptual design. This userfriendly software was developed using MathCad and M atlab codes. The analysis method was based on non-dimensional paramet ric plots of two primary flutter parameters, namely Regier number and Flutter number, with normalization factors based on wing torsion stiffness, sweep, mass ratio, taper ratio, aspect ratio, center of gravit y location and pitch-inertia radius of gyration. These parametric plo ts were compiled in a Chance-Vought Corporation report from database of past experiments and wind tunnel test results. An example was prese nted for conceptual flutter analysis of outer-wing of a Blended-Wing- Body aircraft.

Mukhopadhyay, Vivek↗

Dynamic Effects of Internal Spur-Gear Drives

Set of computer programs developed for studying dynamic effects of internal spur-gear drives. New analysis procedure used for gear combinations leading up to and exceeding "very high contact ratio" (VHCR) of three. Parametric studies with new computer programs revealed impressive list of advantages of internal spur-gear drives over external spur-gear drives.

Printz, A.↗

Results of the JIMO Follow-on Destinations Parametric Studies

NASA's proposed Jupiter Icy Moon Orbiter (JIMO) mission currently in conceptual development is to be the first one of a series of highly capable Nuclear Electric Propulsion (NEP) science driven missions. To understand the implications of a multi-mission capability requirement on the JIMO vehicle and mission, the NASA Prometheus Program initiated a set of parametric high-level studies to be followed by a series of more in-depth studies. The JIMO potential follow-on destinations identified include a Saturn system tour, a Neptune system tour, a Kuiper Belt Objects rendezvous, an Interstellar Precursor mission, a Multiple Asteroid Sample Return and a Comet Sample Return. This paper shows that the baseline JIMO reactor and design envelop can satisfy five out of six of the follow-on destinations. Flight time to these destinations can significantly be reduced by increasing the launch energy or/and by inserting gravity assists to the heliocentric phase.

nuclear electric propulsion↗

Georgia Institute of Technology research on the Gas Core Actinide Transmutation Reactor (GCATR)

The program reviewed is a study of the feasibility, design, and optimization of the GCATR. The program is designed to take advantage of initial results and to continue work carried out on the Gas Core Breeder Reactor. The program complements NASA's program of developing UF6 fueled cavity reactors for power, nuclear pumped lasers, and other advanced technology applications. The program comprises: (1) General Studies--Parametric survey calculations performed to examine the effects of reactor spectrum and flux level on the actinide transmutation for GCATR conditions. The sensitivity of the results to neutron cross sections are to be assessed. Specifically, the parametric calculations of the actinide transmutation are to include the mass, isotope composition, fission and capture rates, reactivity effects, and neutron activity of recycled actinides. (2) GCATR Design Studies--This task is a major thrust of the proposed research program. Several subtasks are considered: optimization criteria studies of the blanket and fuel reprocessing, the actinide insertion and recirculation system, and the system integration. A brief review of the background of the GCATR and ongoing research is presented.

Clement, J. D.↗

A computer program to predict rotor rotational noise of a stationary rotor from blade loading coefficient

The programing language used is FORTRAN IV. A description of all main and subprograms is provided so that any user possessing a FORTRAN compiler and random access capability can adapt the program to his facility. Rotor blade surface-pressure spectra can be used by the program to calculate: (1) blade station loading spectra, (2) chordwise and/or spanwise integrated blade-loading spectra, and (3) far-field rotational noise spectra. Any of five standard inline functions describing the chordwise distribution of the blade loading can be chosen in order to study parametrically the acoustic predictions. The program output consists of both printed and graphic descriptions of the blade-loading coefficient spectra and far-field acoustic spectrum. The results may also be written on binary file for future processing. Examples of the application of the program along with a description of the rotational noise prediction theory on which the program is based are also provided.

Ramakrishnan, R.↗

Combustor diffuser interaction program

Advances in gas turbine engine performance are achieved by using compressor systems with high stage loading and low part count, which result in high exit Mach numbers. The diffuser and combustor systems in such engines should be optimized to reduce system pressure loss and to maximize the engine thrust-to-weight ratio and minimize length. The state-of-the-art combustor-diffuser systems do not meet these requirements. Detailed understanding of the combustor-diffuser flow field interaction is required for designing advanced gas turbine engines. An experimental study of the combustor-diffuser interaction (CDI) is being conducted to obtain data for the evaluation and improvement of analytical models applicable to a wide variety of diffuser designs. The CDI program consists of four technical phases: Literature Search; Baseline Configuration; Parametric Configurations; and Performance Configurations. Phase 2 of the program is in progress.

Srinivasan, Ram↗

Space shuttle orbit maneuvering engine reusable thrust chamber program

Reusable thrust chamber and injector concepts were evaluated for the space shuttle orbit maneuvering engine (OME). Parametric engine calculations were carried out by computer program for N2O4/amine, LOX/amine and LOX/hydrocarbon propellant combinations for engines incorporating regenerative cooled and insulated columbium thrust chambers. The calculation methods are described including the fuel vortex film cooling method of combustion gas temperature control, and performance prediction. A method of acceptance of a regeneratively cooled heat rejection reduction using a silicone oil additive was also demonstrated by heated tube heat transfer testing. Regeneratively cooled thrust chamber operation was also demonstrated where the injector was characterized for the OME application with a channel wall regenerative thrust chamber. Bomb stability testing of the demonstration chambers/injectors demonstrated recovery for the nominal design of acoustic cavities. Cavity geometry changes were also evaluated to assess their damping margin. Performance and combustion stability was demonstrated of the originally developed 10 inch diameter combustion pattern operating in an 8 inch diameter thrust chamber.

Senneff, J. M.↗

Software for Managing Parametric Studies

The Information Power Grid Virtual Laboratory (ILab) is a Practical Extraction and Reporting Language (PERL) graphical-user-interface computer program that generates shell scripts to facilitate parametric studies performed on the Grid. (The Grid denotes a worldwide network of supercomputers used for scientific and engineering computations involving data sets too large to fit on desktop computers.) Heretofore, parametric studies on the Grid have been impeded by the need to create control language scripts and edit input data files painstaking tasks that are necessary for managing multiple jobs on multiple computers. ILab reflects an object-oriented approach to automation of these tasks: All data and operations are organized into packages in order to accelerate development and debugging. A container or document object in ILab, called an experiment, contains all the information (data and file paths) necessary to define a complex series of repeated, sequenced, and/or branching processes. For convenience and to enable reuse, this object is serialized to and from disk storage. At run time, the current ILab experiment is used to generate required input files and shell scripts, create directories, copy data files, and then both initiate and monitor the execution of all computational processes.

Yarrow, Maurice↗

Rocket injector anomalies study. Volume 2: Results of parametric studies

The employment of a existing computer program to simulate three dimensional two phase gas spray flows in liquid propellant rocket engines. This was accomplished by modification of an existing three dimensional computer program (REFLAN3D) with Euler/Lagrange approach for simulating two phase spray flow, evaporation and combustion. The modified code is referred to as REFLAN3D-SPRAY. Computational studies of the model rocket engine combustion chamber are presented. The parametric studies of the two phase flow and combustion shows qualitatively correct response for variations in geometrical and physical parameters. The injection nonuniformity test with blocked central fuel injector holes shows significant changes in the central flame core and minor influence on the wall heat transfer fluxes.

Przekwas, A. J.↗

NASA Tech Briefs, September 2006

Topics covered include: Improving Thermomechanical Properties of SiC/SiC Composites; Aerogel/Particle Composites for Thermoelectric Devices; Patches for Repairing Ceramics and Ceramic- Matrix Composites; Lower-Conductivity Ceramic Materials for Thermal-Barrier Coatings; An Alternative for Emergency Preemption of Traffic Lights; Vehicle Transponder for Preemption of Traffic Lights; Automated Announcements of Approaching Emergency Vehicles; Intersection Monitor for Traffic-Light-Preemption System; Full-Duplex Digital Communication on a Single Laser Beam; Stabilizing Microwave Frequency of a Photonic Oscillator; Microwave Oscillators Based on Nonlinear WGM Resonators; Pointing Reference Scheme for Free-Space Optical Communications Systems; High-Level Performance Modeling of SAR Systems; Spectral Analysis Tool 6.2 for Windows; Multi-Platform Avionics Simulator; Silicon-Based Optical Modulator with Ferroelectric Layer; Multiplexing Transducers Based on Tunnel-Diode Oscillators; Scheduling with Automated Resolution of Conflicts; Symbolic Constraint Maintenance Grid; Discerning Trends in Performance Across Multiple Events; Magnetic Field Solver; Computing for Aiming a Spaceborne Bistatic- Radar Transmitter; 4-Vinyl-1,3-Dioxolane-2-One as an Additive for Li-Ion Cells; Probabilistic Prediction of Lifetimes of Ceramic Parts; STRANAL-PMC Version 2.0; Micromechanics and Piezo Enhancements of HyperSizer; Single-Phase Rare-Earth Oxide/Aluminum Oxide Glasses; Tilt/Tip/Piston Manipulator with Base-Mounted Actuators; Measurement of Model Noise in a Hard-Wall Wind Tunnel; Loci-STREAM Version 0.9; The Synergistic Engineering Environment; Reconfigurable Software for Controlling Formation Flying; More About the Tetrahedral Unstructured Software System; Computing Flows Using Chimera and Unstructured Grids; Avoiding Obstructions in Aiming a High-Gain Antenna; Analyzing Aeroelastic Stability of a Tilt-Rotor Aircraft; Tracking Positions and Attitudes of Mars Rovers; Stochastic Evolutionary Algorithms for Planning Robot Paths; Compressible Flow Toolbox; Rapid Aeroelastic Analysis of Blade Flutter in Turbomachines; General Flow-Solver Code for Turbomachinery Applications; Code for Multiblock CFD and Heat-Transfer Computations; Rotating-Pump Design Code; Covering a Crucible with Metal Containing Channels; Repairing Fractured Bones by Use of Bioabsorbable Composites; Kalman Filter for Calibrating a Telescope Focal Plane; Electronic Absolute Cartesian Autocollimator; Fiber-Optic Gratings for Lidar Measurements of Water Vapor; Simulating Responses of Gravitational-Wave Instrumentation; SOFTC: A Software Correlator for VLBI; Progress in Computational Simulation of Earthquakes; Database of Properties of Meteors; Computing Spacecraft Solar-Cell Damage by Charged Particles; Thermal Model of a Current-Carrying Wire in a Vacuum; Program for Analyzing Flows in a Complex Network; Program Predicts Performance of Optical Parametric Oscillators; Processing TES Level-1B Data; Automated Camera Calibration; Tracking the Martian CO2 Polar Ice Caps in Infrared Images; Processing TES Level-2 Data; SmaggIce Version 1.8; Solving the Swath Segment Selection Problem; The Spatial Standard Observer; Less-Complex Method of Classifying MPSK; Improvement in Recursive Hierarchical Segmentation of Data; Using Heaps in Recursive Hierarchical Segmentation of Data; Tool for Statistical Analysis and Display of Landing Sites; Automated Assignment of Proposals to Reviewers; Array-Pattern-Match Compiler for Opportunistic Data Analysis; Pre-Processor for Compression of Multispectral Image Data; Compressing Image Data While Limiting the Effects of Data Losses; Flight Operations Analysis Tool; Improvement in Visual Target Tracking for a Mobile Robot; Software for Simulating Air Traffic; Automated Vectorization of Decision-Based Algorithms; Grayscale Optical Correlator Workbench; "One-Stop Shopping" for Ocean Remote-Sensing and Model Data; State Analysis Database Tool; Generating CAHV and CAHVOmages with Shadows in ROAMS; Improving UDP/IP Transmission Without Increasing Congestion; FORTRAN Versions of Reformulated HFGMC Codes; Program for Editing Spacecraft Command Sequences; Flight-Tested Prototype of BEAM Software; Mission Scenario Development Workbench; Marsviewer; Tool for Analysis and Reduction of Scientific Data; ASPEN Version 3.0; Secure Display of Space-Exploration Images; Digital Front End for Wide-Band VLBI Science Receiver; Multifunctional Tanks for Spacecraft; Lightweight, Segmented, Mostly Silicon Telescope Mirror; Assistant for Analyzing Tropical-Rain-Mapping Radar Data; and Anion-Intercalating Cathodes for High-Energy- Density Cells.

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Space transfer vehicle concepts and requirements study. Volume 3, book 1: Program cost estimates

The Space Transfer Vehicle (STV) Concepts and Requirements Study cost estimate and program planning analysis is presented. The cost estimating technique used to support STV system, subsystem, and component cost analysis is a mixture of parametric cost estimating and selective cost analogy approaches. The parametric cost analysis is aimed at developing cost-effective aerobrake, crew module, tank module, and lander designs with the parametric cost estimates data. This is accomplished using cost as a design parameter in an iterative process with conceptual design input information. The parametric estimating approach segregates costs by major program life cycle phase (development, production, integration, and launch support). These phases are further broken out into major hardware subsystems, software functions, and tasks according to the STV preliminary program work breakdown structure (WBS). The WBS is defined to a low enough level of detail by the study team to highlight STV system cost drivers. This level of cost visibility provided the basis for cost sensitivity analysis against various design approaches aimed at achieving a cost-effective design. The cost approach, methodology, and rationale are described. A chronological record of the interim review material relating to cost analysis is included along with a brief summary of the study contract tasks accomplished during that period of review and the key conclusions or observations identified that relate to STV program cost estimates. The STV life cycle costs are estimated on the proprietary parametric cost model (PCM) with inputs organized by a project WBS. Preliminary life cycle schedules are also included.

Peffley, Al F.↗

Koopman-based Differentiable Predictive Control for the Dynamics-Aware Economic Dispatch Problem

The dynamics-aware economic dispatch (DED) problem embeds low-level generator dynamics and operational constraints to enable near real-time scheduling of generation units in a power network. DED produces a more dynamic supervisory control policy than traditional economic dispatch (T-ED) that reduces overall generation costs. However, the incorporation of differential equations that govern the system dynamics makes DED an optimization problem that is computationally prohibitive to solve. In this work, we present a new data-driven approach based on differentiable programming to efficiently obtain offline parametric solutions to the underlying DED problem. In particular, we employ the recently proposed differentiable predictive control (DPC) for offline learning of explicit neural control policies based on identified Koopman operator (KO) model of the system dynamics. We demonstrate the high solution quality and five orders of magnitude computational-time savings of the DPC method over the original optimization-based DED approach on a 9-bus test power grid network.

King, Ethan↗

Guidance and navigation requirements for unmanned flyby and swingby missions to the outer planets. Volume 2: impulsive high thrust missions, phase A

The impulsive, high thrust missions portion of a study on guidance and navigation requirements for unmanned flyby and swingby missions to the outer planet is presented. The proper balance between groundbased navigational capability, using the deep space network (DSN) alone, and an onboard navigational capability with and without supplemental use of DSN tracking, for unmanned missions to the outer planets of the solar system is defined. A general guidance and navigation requirements program is used to survey parametrically the characteristics associated with three types of navigation systems: (1) totally onboard, (2) totally Earth-based, and (3) a combination of these two.

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A homogeneous heat pipe design code

A computer program was developed to facilitate parametric performance evaluation of heat pipes in lightweight heat rejection systems. A description of the code, user's manual, and sample inputs are provided. The emphasis is placed on the analysis and design of homogeneous wick heat pipes. The analysis of the annular heat pipe is included as part of the heat pipe radiator subroutine.

Nakashima, A. M.↗